This is the real ‘Buran’ Soviet shuttle in Gorky Park, Moscow. Well, nearly real anyway, it’s actually a prototype vehicle designed for static tests. The Soviet shuttle program began in 1976 as a response to the United States equivalent (Soviet politicians were convinced that the shuttle could be used for military purposes). The project was the largest and the most expensive in the history of Soviet space exploration.

Thanks to Tom D, Konstantin, Dee Mon, GS, Konstantin, Igor and Roman Korchagin (’Igor’ and ‘Roman Korchagin’, seriously? )

This is the beautiful Venice, city of canals. Venice is built on more than a hundred islands in a shallow lagoon, with the canals serving the function of roads - every form of transport is on water or on foot. In fact, Venice is Europe’s largest car-free zone, unique in Europe in remaining a sizeable functioning city in the 21st century entirely without cars or trucks.

I can’t spot any gondolas from up here though, can you?

In our next thumbnails we’re also featuring St. Mark’s Basilica (you can also see the bell-tower) and the Rialto Bridge. St. Mark’s Basilica overlooks the Piazza San Marco (you know, that square with all the pigeons that’s in all the movies), and the Rialto Bridge is the oldest and most famous bridge which crosses Venice’s Grand Canal. There’s heaps of info over at Wikipedia, and there’s tons of good ground level photos there too

Thanks: Philip R, morinox, Drew Mills, Andy Kaplan-Myrth, Daniel, Troy Fuqua, GS, Simon Sutcliffe, Bennet Langlotz, Michele, Jan Fabry, jupap7, Martin Willey, Thomas, Mike Krus, Kevin, Ben Singleton, TROY, ray hollis, Vaclav Papousek, Jens Kilian, Bryan Robson, Frederic Argazzi, Max, David Fink and James Edmunds.

Despite the title, the annual “Oktoberfest” takes place each September in Theresienwiese, Munich. You can see the large tents being constructed where Germans and tourists will sit at enormous long tables and drink beer by the litre. If things haven’t changed much from when I was there in the late ’90s then there will also be large group renditions of Alice (Who the f**k is Alice) at every opportunity.

Thanks: marcogh, Ralf, Erich Schubert, luckystarr

There’s something very odd going on at this air base in Eastern Iraq. Quite apart from the aircraft parked on the runways, there’s some serious image misalignment, and what on earth is going on with the colours?

Thanks to Marc Armstrong

An incredible image here of burning oil fields in Iraq, just north of Basra. Zoom out to see how far the plumes of smoke have travelled, and zoom in to see how huge the fires are.

Thanks to Sean, Jason Thompson, Adam Parker, Yablo and others.

This is the Blue Mountain ski resort outside of Palmerton, Pennsylvania (although there’s nothing very ‘blue’ about it). That sure is some excellent snowmaking facilities they’ve got though! It might be interesting going skiing or boarding and looking out at a brown, snowless landscape as far as the eye can see…

Thanks to Chris and Steve.